Toye & Co set to delist from AIM as shareholders agree to sell up
TOYE & Co, Birmingham’s oldest manufacturer, is set to delist from the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) after 11 years of trading.
Earlier this summer, chairman Bryan Toye launched an attempt to take a controlling interest in the jewellery and regalia maker when he acquired 272,000 shares from Gibraltar-based Harris Rodriguez.
Last month, using a special purpose vehicle (SPV) – Bryan Toye Ltd – he had proposed an offer for the share capital based on a price of 35p per share. The move valued the business at almost £787,000.
Toye said he did not believe the business was getting good value from its AIM listing and therefore he intended to take his family’s company private.
However, after taking advice from WH Ireland, the independent directors said they could not accept the offer as it devalued the company.
Talks continued in the interim and in a statement today to the London Stock Exchange, Toye said the SPV had now received acceptances in respect of 79.12% of the issued share capital of Toye and it therefore intended to proceed with the delisting.
The cancellation is due to become effective from September 17.
The statement said that following the cancellation there would be “significantly reduced liquidity and marketability” in any Toye shares not committed to the offer.
Jewellery Quarter-based Toye & Co, which earlier this year was featured in an episode of the BBC 2 series Hidden Histories: Britain’s Oldest Family Businesses, is one of Birmingham’s most historic businesses.
It is one of only a handful of regalia-making companies left in Britain today. It uses traditional techniques to make thousands of items for the military, exclusive societies, foreign leaders and the Royal Household, including The Queen.
The business, which operates from two factories and employs 132 people, has been handed down from father to son for hundreds of years and is now run by Fiona Toye, the first female member of the family to take charge – although her connection is through marriage rather than birthright.
